To the point my engine knocks and I was wondering what would be better, to rebuild, or to find a donor engine. The sound is coming from the lower end only under load when driving. There is no knock at idle. Is it possible to drop the oil pan and put new crank bearings on without having to take out the motor?

 

You can put new bearings in there with the motor still in the truck.
Thing is, whatever surface scored those bearings originally is still going to be there. Adding new bearings will make things tighter, but may actually be worse long term as the mating surfaces aren't machined.

Rebuilds are as good as what you do to rebuild them.
Donor engines are as good as good as their mileage and how they've been maintained - hard to tell, outside compression/leak down testing.

 

More background. My engine got hydro locked. A friend of mine who is a mechanic said that I could just put in new crank bearings. I just wanted to check here first and see what all your advice would be.

 

I'm not a machinist.. I'd venture a guess that you certainly could damage a bearing with water as well as bend a rod. You're not going to be able to tell that you've damaged a rod without pulling that head off and measuring the height of each piston.

If you stressed that motor hard enough to push the rod into the bearing and scar it, I'd suggest that you probably scarred the crank also... And maybe bent a rod..

Again, just my theory... I've seen lots of motors that get backyard in-vehicle rebuilds... My theory is that there isn't any point in adding new bearings to a scored crank. I suppose it wouldn't hurt to open it up and have a look.

 

Anybody out there who has this kind of experience? I have come across a truck that will not start for 200 dollars but it cranks over. I figure probably a fuel pump? My idea is to get this truck and use the long block and use my intake/exhaust. My truck is an 87 and this one is an 88. Good or bad idea? Any other ideas to why a truck won't start after sitting for a year?

 

Run compression on it before you assume it's something minor.

 

Thanks, I will try that out.

 

Hey all, I finally had time in my busy schedule to do a compression check. Cylinders 1-3 are all at 180 and # 4 is at 170. With almost 180,000 on the motor I think that is really good. I am going to proceed and take out the engine and figure out what is wrong making it knock. Hopefully I can just change out the crank bearings and get off easy. Any insight would be appreciated.

-Kevin

 

When you adjusted the timing to 5 BTDC, did you jump the terminals in the diag box? If so, did the idle drop when you did it? The TPS could be out of adjustment or bad altoghether.

 

The TPS is fine. I put in a new OEM part as well as adjusting it according to the directions found on this forum. I have no engine codes.

 

i have a bit of experience both rebuilding and rescuing 22r's. rebuilding can run you over $1500 if you are thorough and get a real good machinist. when you drop it in, you pretty well know you're going 200k. If you rescue a motor, you need to pull it down to the short block, clean it up, check the clearances, look at the head, probalby take it to the machine shop, replace the timing set, water and oil pump and get a master gasket set and a clutch. All this assuming, you don't want to dink with the engine for at least 100k miles. You can do this latter project for under $500 and still be lavish with it. A nice slow careful re-do of your replacement motor allows you time to unscrew all the wrong bolts and jack leg mechanicsmanship that probably preceeded you LOL, boy, do you see lots of that on a 20y/o car!!!!

 

Hey thanks for the advice! I am going to pull the engine tomorow and see what she looks like inside. For my application I think I am going to go with Engbldr. I e-mailed him and he recomends the torqr camshaft. Any opinions of what I should order?

 

we use many of Ted's supplies, totally for our rebuild engine. the RV cam works well.